


Across the Galaxy

by Tertia_Quinn



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, The Umbrella Academy (Comics), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:14:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22951609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tertia_Quinn/pseuds/Tertia_Quinn
Summary: What do you do when someone you love get's lost in time?.....Well, you find another time traveler then drag their butt home...Obviously.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy & Vanya Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 17
Kudos: 70





	Across the Galaxy

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo yeah. Started a new one.

_“You can’t go on missions if you’re ordinary, Vanya.”_

It was such an innocent statement, and to be fair she had heard much worse from the others but somehow coming from Ben, sweet gentle Ben who wouldn't hurt a fly, who’d read books with her and kept her company when Five disappeared, it was too much. It was the final straw, in a room full of straws... that broke the camel's back and she’d fled the house like a flock of demons were chasing her. She guessed in a way, they were. 

_“You can’t go on missions if you’re ordinary, Vanya.”_

"Stop it!" she cried as she raised her hands to her head and pressed her fists against her temples. Horns honked and tires screeched as people yelled obscenities outside their car windows, while she crossed a street without looking, heedless of the dangers. 

_“You can't go on missions if you’re…_

She wanted Five. She missed him so much. She wanted to go back to that last night, when she was laying in his arms and he was telling her about his plans. Hell, she wanted to go back to the days before that, when time travel had been the last thing on his mind and he would lazily explain math to her or just have her play her violin to help him calm down, after Dad had forced him to jump again and again until he could barely stand up straight. He had never berated or made her feel like she was less of a person because she was…..

_….ordinary Vanya.”_

“Please," she begged, not even sure who she was asking. "Please stop." She let out a sob as she nearly stumbled but caught herself, the houses blurring in her peripheral vision as she raced past. "Please, I just want it to stop. I can't help it." The only thing she'd ever wanted was to be loved and accepted. She never wanted to be different from the others, she just… she would have given anything to be like them. For just a scrap of acknowledgment, she would have moved mountains for them. 

_“You can't go on….”_

Why, why couldn't they see that? Why couldn't they understand? She couldn't help it, that she was...THAT! She was that word. Why had Dad adopted her? Why hadn't he left her where he’d found her? Why hadn't he left her where maybe someone who could have loved her, would have found her? And maybe then, she could have been happy and valued. Then she wouldn't have held her siblings back, she wouldn't have been in the way and she wouldn't have cared about any stinking…..

_“….Missions if you’re…”_

Why hadn't Five listened? Why did the others hate her so much? Why was she so damn lonely? Why couldn't Dad just once let her have something? So many ‘Whys’ so many questions and never any answers. 

And why, why, why…...why was she so damned……

“…..Ordinary Vanya.”

Her legs finally gave out and she fell to the ground, panting and sobbing. Why? Why wasn't she special? What had she done that was so wrong, that it meant she had to be the only normal person in a family full of extraordinary people?

"Here now," a voice said in a sympathetic and soothing tone. "What's all this fuss about? Whatever it is, it can't be that bad."

She glanced up horrified to find she had just collapsed in front of what was obviously an important man. He was dressed in what Klaus would have called a power suit, it was blue, and he’d covered that with a beige trench coat and…. red converse? 

“You’d be surprised.” she answered, wiping her eyes and nose with her sleeve. Then seemed to remember herself and shook her head. “I’m...I'm sorry,” she stammered. “I didn't mean to bother you, I was just... I just needed to get away.”

She was surprised, and a little bit horrified, when instead of scolding or telling her to leave, he seemed to think for a moment and then slowly lowered himself down to the grass in front of her.

“Oh I know that feeling.” he answered her, leaning back on his hands, so he could look her in the eyes. 

“You really shouldn’t be sitting on the ground you’ll get stains." she said, her voice small and slightly reflecting her horror.

“Oh, You’d be surprised.” He gave a half laugh, throwing her words back at her. "It's tougher than it looks. A little grass isn't going to hurt it. Now how ‘bout we stop worrying about my suit and you tell me what's got you so upset, hmm?"

She glanced up into his face and was shocked at what she found there. Oh, he was handsome in a roundabout way. He had a nice face, a kind one, and don’t even get her started on his hair. But it wasn't that that caught her attention. It was his eyes. They were so old and so tired. And they matched hers. She knew those eyes because she had to face them every day in the mirror. They were so like hers, that it physically hurt and before she could stop herself, she whimpered and reached out to place her palm on the side of his face. 

“You’ve lost someone too.” she sniffled in shared pain.

He was startled, his eyes going suspicious, but then he looked at her so intensely, that it felt like he was turning her inside out. Like he was picking her apart piece by piece, examining her and then slowly putting her back together again. Whatever he found seemed to satisfy him, because his face softened and he brought his own hand up to cover hers. 

“Yes,” he answered softly, tone matching hers. "She’s not dead but she's…."

“Gone.” Vanya finished for him, "Out of your reach." He nodded and she gulped. "It's the same with me. He had a power I didn’t...could never understand, I'm just ordinary," she whimpered. "I'm not important, I'm just ordinary Vanya, who causes trouble, gets in people's way, and I couldn't help him, and now he's gone and I…"

“Oh, I doubt that.” He answered, his eyes still full of pain but unbearably kind. "Over 900 years in time and space and I’ve never met anyone who wasn't important.”

“Now you’re just making fun of me,” she pulled her hand back as if she’d been burned and in her mind she had. She never should have trusted this stranger, he was just like the rest, but….his eyes…. Those too-old eyes, that sat in a body that was far too young for them, still matched her own. Even Dad, in his never-ending demonic agelessness, couldn't match those eyes.

She looked back up at his face and almost winced at the pain she saw there. She had caused that. Without meaning to, her issues with the others, her fears and insecurities had sprung up and she’d unwittingly hurt him. This man, who had been nothing but kind. With his too-old and too unbearably kind eyes.

“I...I'm sorry," she found herself stuttering like Diego. "It’s just….the others….. I'm just ordinary and they….. Sometimes they tease me and it goes too far…..they don't understand…..Are you really 900 years old?” she asked, her eyes going wide as she allowed herself to believe, for just a second….. No one else she knew had eyes like those.

“Now that is a very long and very drawn out story, Ms. Vanya but yes. Last time I checked, I clocked in at about, ooooooooh 900ish, I'd say.”

He said it so matter-of-factly, that it had to be true and despite everything, she found herself believing. After all, who was she to object? She lived in a mansion with a robot for a mom and a talking ape for a nanny. And that wasn't even taking into account her super-powered siblings. So really, why couldn't he be 900 years old, if he said he was?

"But that’s enough about me. You still haven't told me what it is that has you so upset, that you’re running recklessly into unknown parks."

She gave a sheepish laugh and shook her head. "I think somehow I’ve already told you. He’s gone. And I'm just ordinary. No matter how much I try, no matter how much I fight it, I'm always in the way and I'm always, always, just ordinary."

“Nah, I don't believe that. I think you’re exaggerating. Like I said earlier. In my experience, no one is ever just ordinary.”

“Oh, I am." She sighed softly. "I'm the great disappointment, you see. Everyone in my family has powers….everyone but me. And they constantly let me know it. It was easier when I had Five. He didn't see me that way. He saw me as a person. Someone he….." she stopped when she realized he had pulled out…...3-D glasses and was examining her again.

“Are those…..Are those 3-D glasses?" she asked in bewilderment.

“Umhm," he answered absentmindedly, still looking at the general air around her. "That’s not ….hmm this isn't possible. You’re swimming in void stuff."

“I’m...I’m WHAT?” 

“You, Vanya….I'm sorry, what's your last name again?"

“Hargreeves.” she answered tentatively. 

“Oh yes well, Hargreeves…..hmm that does explain a thing or two. You, Vanya Hargreeves, are swimming in void stuff.” 

“Is that bad?”

“Well…." he answered, drawing out the L, "It’s not bad per say. And you did say you didn't want to be ordinary. And this is definitely not ordinary soooo…”

“Is it going to hurt me?”

“No, nothing like that," he assured her, "It just...It might draw things to you. Things that might not be so friendly.”

"Things?" she asked tentatively.

“Umhm, generally creatures of the void. Other beings who might be able to sense and want to use it, things like that.”

“Well how do I get it off, I don't want...I'd rather not be eaten by some strange creature who wants some weird particle I can't even see. How did it even get on me anyway?” 

"I'm afraid you can't get it off… here," he took the paper glasses off his face then put them on hers and waved his hand in front of her face.

"See, I have it too."

She was shocked and dismayed to see the black particles floating all around him. But it was when she looked at her own hand, though, that she really freaked out. When he said she was swimming in it, he hadn't been kidding. It didn't just pepper her body the way it did his. No, it swarmed it. It clung to her like an oily second skin, so thick and tar-like that it was all she could see when she looked at her arms and legs through the glasses. 

"Why, what…..I’m covered," she half screamed. "I’m….it’s all over me, I dont…please get it off, I …..why," she ripped the 3-D glasses off her eyes, blinking in the light as they adjusted and was relieved to see her normal skin again. 

“Void stuff,” the man answered, looking at her sadly. “You, Vanya Hargreeves, have somehow managed to do the impossible and travel in the void. Repeatedly. Fairly recently too, if I'm not mistaken. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never leave the mansion. I was only out today because I felt bad and I..I just left.” 

“I just left,” she whispered to herself, her face going white. “I’ve never done that before.” She looked up at him with astonished eyes. “I didn't think I could.”

“Quite freeing, isn't it.” He asked, looking back at her with understanding, nostalgic eyes. “To realize you’re in charge of what you do and the choices you make.”

“No you don’t...you don’t understand. He’s going to kill me... I...I just left. I'm not supposed to leave. I'm never supposed to leave the academy. Ever. People aren’t supposed to see me or know I’m there. I..He’s going to lock me up and never let me see the light of day ever again.”

She began to breathe heavily and spots began to dance in and out of her vision as it started to tunnel. 

No nonononono, what had she been thinking? Her fingers clenched desperately in the grass at her side, nails straining against the stone and earth... _Oh God, he was going to put her back in the dark place. Back in that horrible place, where there was no light and no sound.…._

“Miss Hargreeves, Are you alright?”

_No brothers or Sister, to toss words with. No Mom Or Pogo to be understanding and tell her it would all be alright. No Five, with his manic presence, happily buzzing in the corner of her mind. Just her and the dark and an endless silence that stretched on forever and ever and..._

“Miss Hargreeves?”

_“Oh please Daddy no, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I was bad. I didn't mean to. Please don't put me back in there. I’ll get it right this time, I promise. Just Please….”_

_“Vanya!!”_

The mental voice was kind but authoritative and it swept through her mind, lighting up the darkest corners and breaking the chains her memories had caged her with. Distantly, she noticed she could hear singing and when she listened closely, trying to make out the words, it was both familiar and elusive all at once. She knew this song. Entire worlds were born lived and died in this song. Entire galaxies. Entire universes. All of space and time, just waiting to open itself for her, if she could only just...…

_“None of that,”_ he chided her, gently prodding her away from the song and back to consciousness. “ _Your mind isn't ready for that yet_.”

She snapped her eyes open and stared at him in wonder. 

“Who are you?” she asked reverently and he smiled a manic smile, that was so like the one Five used, her heart ached. 

“I'm the Doctor.” He announced as if that explained everything. And as crazy as it sounded, she _felt?_ that it did. 

“That song,” she said, unclenching her hands from the earth and letting it scatter to the ground around her, “It was so beautiful...I know it...I’ve heard it before,” she stuttered “... with Five, I….”

“Don’t think about it,” he warned her. “I wasn’t kidding when I said you weren't ready for it yet.”

“What was it?”

He looked at her with sad responsibility laden eyes, then sighed heavily as he realized she wasn't going to let it go.

“It’s the song of time.” He whispered reverently, “And as I said before, it’s not something you need to be worrying about just yet. In fact, it’s very important that you don’t,” Pulling out a pair of black-rimmed glasses, regular ones this time, he cleaned them, deftly slipped them onto his nose and proceeded to study her intently. 

Vanya, not used to being under such scrutiny from anyone but Dad, bit her lip, fidgeted in place and wondered if he would see what everyone else saw. If he would see how unimportant and ordinary she really was. 

Instinctively, on another level that even she wasn’t conscious of, she realized something very important was being decided here and that the course her life would take, was suddenly dependent upon that decision.

“I only take the best,” he muttered under his breath, finally, as he seemed to come to some conclusion.

“So tell me, Vanya Hargreeves”, he asked, his amber eyes glowing as that manic grin settled on his face, sweeping away all the sadness and exhaustion. “How do you feel about running?”

**Author's Note:**

> Annnnd that's it for this chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Please comment and tell me if you liked it so I'll know if I should keep going with it or not.


End file.
